Wholly followed the Lord

Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD. – Deuteronomy 1.36

I remember back to when we were expecting our fourth child in 1987. We didn’t know if the baby was a boy or a girl or even twins. I had been reading about Joshua and Caleb about that time I thought that if we had twin boys the ideal names would be Joshua and Caleb. I don’t think Mary was quite so sure, but when our one son was born in May we decided to call him Caleb. I like the name but even more I like who Caleb was. Caleb was the guy who ‘wholly followed the Lord’ and like any parent that is the kind of testimony I wanted my children to have.

So, the name Caleb, and the man behind it are special to me.

I wonder if any of us could ever say, even for a day, that we have wholly followed the Lord. I mean have any one of us followed God in every action, every attitude, every thought, every emotion, every choice, and every word.

I can’t think of a day like that for me. As we grow in Christ we hopefully do get better and better at following the Lord. It is relatively easy to get our outside sorted. I think most of us can look like we are ‘wholly following the Lord’ if they only see what we show them.

But do we wholly follow the Lord in our private thoughts and attitudes? Do we wholly follow Him in the way we treat others? Do we wholly follow Him when we post on social media! Do we even wholly follow the Lord in the way we treat our families?

D.L. Moody’s friend told him one day ‘"The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him." Moody is attributed with saying ‘I am to be that man.’

Are we willing to be the man or woman who wholly follows the Lord?